A method for integrating a further bus subscriber into a bus system, and a bus system, having a master module and subscribers disposed in series, includes the temporally consecutive method steps: in a first method step, the further bus subscriber transmits a data packet to the master module in order to log in to the master module, in a second method step, a bus subscriber disposed between the further bus subscriber and the master module stops the data packet and checks whether the bus system has already received a release, in a third method step, the first bus subscriber forwards the data packet to the master module if the bus system has not yet received a release, or in a third, in particular an alternative, method step, if the bus system has already received a release, the bus subscriber stores the data packet and waits until the release of the bus system is revoked and after the release has been revoked, forwards the stored data packet to the master module.

A PLC according to an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed. The PLC according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a master unit; and a plurality of interface units which access the master unit via a system bus. The master unit includes: a control unit for controlling input/output and processing commands; and a plurality of first RJ45 terminals for input/output of data, wherein a maximum of eight signals are arranged via each pin of each of the first RJ45 terminals. Each of the interface units includes a connection means for connecting a signal between a second RJ45 terminal for connecting a signal line from each of the first RJ45 terminals and an external device, wherein the interface units are configured to be expandable by the number of the first RJ45 terminals.

A programmable logic controller in which a control object device that changes an operation setting value includes a storage in which a setting data file referred to during operation of a setting value writing function block is stored and a destination specification unit that specifies a destination of the control object device. The destination specification unit can switch between the specification of the destination of the control object device based on destination information in the setting data file and the specification of the destination of the control object device based on separately-designated information.

A communication system for an industrial process includes multiple slave modules connected in series with a master controller. The master controller stores a communication schedule that defines an ordered sequence of messages and identifiers associated with each message. The master controller transmits messages downstream through the slave modules to a terminal one of the slave modules. The terminal slave module generates a return message that is transmitted upstream to the master controller. Each slave module receives each downstream message, identifies based on the message identifier whether the message is associated with response information from the slave module, and inserts the response information into corresponding upstream messages.

The present invention facilitates the confirmation of the state of a slave device. This terminal monitoring device (10) comprises: a terminal information acquisition unit (14) for acquiring, from terminals of a network, terminal information including the addresses of the respective terminals, information for each type, and information pertaining to communication states; and a terminal list screen generation unit (151) that generates a terminal list screen on which selection boxes for displaying the terminals and the terminal information are disposed side by side on the basis of the terminal information and that displays the generated screen on a display unit (12).

Described are platforms, systems, and methods to discover relationships among equipment in automated industrial or commercial environments by cycling each individual piece of equipment while observing sensors in all other equipment in order to measure how each part reacts to each other part. The platforms, systems, and methods identify a plurality of data sources associated with an automation environment; issue one or more commands to cycle a current data source in the a plurality of data sources; monitor the automation environment for events or state changes in the data sources; detect one or more events or one or more state changes in one or more other data sources in the a plurality of data sources; and determine one or more relationships between the current data source and the one or more other data sources.

A method for integrating a further bus subscriber into a bus system, and a bus system, having a master module and subscribers disposed in series, includes the temporally consecutive method steps: in a first method step, the further bus subscriber transmits a data packet to the master module in order to log in to the master module, in a second method step, a bus subscriber disposed between the further bus subscriber and the master module stops the data packet and checks whether the bus system has already received a release, in a third method step, the first bus subscriber forwards the data packet to the master module if the bus system has not yet received a release, or in a third, in particular an alternative, method step, if the bus system has already received a release, the bus subscriber stores the data packet and waits until the release of the bus system is revoked and after the release has been revoked, forwards the stored data packet to the master module.

A control system includes a support device used for developing a user program to be executed on a controller, and a display device that provides a supervisory control screen by referring to information held by the controller. The support device extracts a relationship between an output signal and one or more input signals defined by the user program and generates input-output correspondence information, and transmits the input-output correspondence information or screen data reflecting the input-output correspondence information to the display device. The display device provides, on the basis of the input-output correspondence information or the screen data reflecting the input-output correspondence information, the supervisory control screen showing the current value of a selected output signal and the current value of one or more input signals associated with the output signal by referring to the values of input and output signals held by the controller.

An apparatus for extracting common command information from programmable logic controller (PLC) ladder information according to the present invention may include: a logic information extracting portion configured to extract control logic information from XML information converted from PLC ladder information; and a common command converting portion configured to convert the control logic information extracted by the logic information extracting portion into common command information, wherein the logic information extracting portion is configured to extract, from the XML information, the control logic information in the form of a block obtained by grouping units that respectively represent contacts and lines constituting the PLC ladder information according to an AND condition and an OR condition.

An information collecting system includes a first device including a counter, a second device that collects data from one or more sensing devices in response to a command from the first device, and a third device including a time-measuring unit that manages time. The first device adds, to the data collected by the second device, a first count value output from the counter at a timing when the second device collects the data, to generate a first data set. The third device adds, to the first data set, a correspondence relationship between a time output from the time-measuring unit and a second count value output from the counter of the first device.